Brand, Perea start from near even in Fresno mayor money race

Fresno mayoral candidates Lee Brand and Henry R. Perea are, financially speaking, pretty much even as they start campaigning ahead of the November general election.

That starting point isn’t zero, but considering how much money they each had at their disposal for the June 7 primary election, it’s pretty close.

As of June 30, Brand has around $49,000 in his campaign account. After Perea’s unpaid bills are taken into account, he has a bit more than $41,000.

Perea, currently a Fresno County supervisor, finished first in the five-person primary election, but did not get more than 50 percent of the vote, which means he’s in a November runoff against Brand, currently a Fresno City councilman, who came in second.

Looking ahead, Perea said he held a fundraiser after the most recent June 30 campaign finance deadline that put his campaign above the $100,000 mark.

“By Labor Day, I am confident that our plan will be fully funded to achieve our November goal,” Perea said.

He didn’t reveal that amount.

Brand, however, did. His fundraising target is $600,000.

“We’re actively working on fundraising,” Brand said. “Between, now and Nov. 8 we’ll have to raise a lot of money to get the message out.”

Brand said that Perea “will be a formidable fundraiser, largely because he has the two power groups – unions and developers. I’ve got a much more diversified base than he does. I think I can match him dollar for dollar.”

Perea has raised more than $367,000 so far for the campaign – which included around $87,000 that he moved from his supervisor campaign account earlier this year – and spent $326,105 leading up to the June primary election. That’s about $8.81 per vote.

Brand raised close to $394,000, which includes $100,000 he loaned to his campaign. He transferred an additional $143,275 from his city council campaign, for a total raised of more than $537,000. He spent $494,868, which is around $19.41 per vote.

Though officially nonpartisan, Perea was the only Democrat among the four major candidates. Brand, third-place finisher H. Spees and fourth-place finisher Doug Vagim are all Republicans.